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| Saturn 1B flight Spacecraft Swanson cachet cover with Cape Canaveral postmark February 26, 1966. Signed by Von Braun's rocket team member, Konrad Dannenberg |
AS-201, launched on February 26, 1966, was the first unmanned test flight of an entire production Block I Apollo command and service module (CSM) and the Saturn IB launch vehicle. The spacecraft consisted of the second Block I command module and the first Block I service module. The suborbital flight was a partially successful demonstration of the service propulsion system and the reaction control systems of both modules, and successfully demonstrated the capability of the command module's heat shield to survive re-entry from low Earth orbit.
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| Photo: The last stage of a Saturn 1B rocket displayed in a ceremony on August 31, 1965. |
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| NASA cachet for the first Saturn 1B flight with KSC machine and hand cancel, February 26, 1966. |
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| Photo: Saturn IB AS-201 shoots toward space on February 26, 1966. |
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| Saturn 1B AS-201 cover with Velvatone cachet, postmarked at Cape Canaveral on February 26, 1966. |
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| Photo: "The sketch shows the approximate flight of the Apollo missile launched Saturday from Cape Kennedy, Fla. The mightiest rocket ever built in the United States, a Saturn I-B, was used to hurl the first unmanned Apollo over a blazing re-entry course to a landing in the Atlantic ocean where ships waited to pick it up. February 26, 1966" |
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| Photo: Navy frogmen attach flotation equipment to the Apollo AS-201 command module following splashdown. |
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| USS Boxer recovery ship hand cancel is rare on this cover. |
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| Photo: The recovered Apollo AS‑201 command module shows reentry scorching on its heat shield and is covered with cloth before it is transported to NASA for post-flight evaluation. |
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| USS Boxer recovery ship machine cancel is common. This cover signed by the ship's captain, Albert O Morton. |
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| Beck printed cachet cover B627 was meant for USS Kaskaskia, but this one went to USS Boxer. |
